Bag gardening improving food security for flood-vulnerable families
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Authors
Anwar Hossain
Issue Date
2016-10
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Agriculture , Disasters , Food
Alternative Title
Abstract
Nasima Khatun lives in a village, very near the Jamuna river of Sirajganj, Bangladesh. River water comes to destroy her kitchen garden almost every year during the months of July, August and September, the harvesting season for summer vegetables. During the post flood period vegetable scarcity in homes and local markets becomes acute. Most poor families just eat boiled rice with salt during the floods. The health and nutrition of the household becomes fragile. They have no idea how to come out of this situation. To improve this situation, Practical Action Bangladesh under it’s Vulnerability to Resilience (V2R) project arranged hands on training for 200 flood vulnerable families on bag gardening. This is a simple technology that protects the plant from root suffocation and rotting and avoids water logging. With a smile on her face, Nasima Khatun told me: “I have harvested about 60 pieces of green fruit of white gourd and they are still now fruiting. I kept a few fruits to be matured for seed. I have sold 20 pieces, consumed 30 pieces and gifted to neighbours 10 pieces. Total market value was about 1200tk where as it was cost 20tk only to set a single bag garden.” She continued, “I had no stress regarding food during the recent flood period. Following this method and using local materials, different types of vegetables could be grown. My neighbours did also. When the water rises we can move or raise the bag to keep it out of water except if the water touches our roof. Really, it is a fantastic technology that will increase our strength to live with the floods without concern about food and nutrition.” Blog link: http://practicalaction.org/blog/news/campaigns/bag-gardening-makes-a-big-change-to-food-security-of-flood-vulnerable-families/